Herman Melville Quotes

I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.

Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?

Stay true to the dreams of thy youth.

There is one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.

To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.

I’ll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy.

An utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.

What is an atheist, but one who does not, or will not, see in the universe a ruling principle of love; and what a misanthrope, but one who does not, or will not, see in man a ruling principle of kindness?

It is not down in any map; true places never are.

Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.